Frank, car and new lip looks awesome!! I always thought these lips were plug and play, didn't know a lot of trimming/sanding work was required. I'll be sure to give you a call if I ever order one That's some fine DIY'ing, there pardner....

Frank, car and new lip looks awesome!! I always thought these lips were plug and play, didn't know a lot of trimming/sanding work was required. I'll be sure to give you a call if I ever order one That's some fine DIY'ing, there pardner....

I also thought they were snap on and that's it.
That's kind of why I posted this DIY. Now others can see the kind of
work involved.

I have a question, I just received my Hartge lip from DTM and there are no holes drilled in the bottom of it to screw it into the bumper? Am I missing something?

My lip was the same and there were no marks as to where to make the holes.
I had to drill the holes myself.
what I did was:
fit the lip on the car and then go underneath to measure where to make
the holes. I was able to make the holes right under the bolts that were
going to hold the lip in place.

I've test fitted my lip to my car. A note to others, you may want to cover the portion of your stock bumper with thick scotch packaging tape if you want to avoid scuffing it up during the test fitting. to get the lip on you need to start at one wheel well, and then move across the bumper sliding it over the closest pillar, then the next pillar, then pull in into the other wheel well.

I trimmed a little off of the lip on the two pillars to make it fit better, but still find the top of the lip on the pillars to be a concern. It just seems to me that they won't be totally flush when it's taped on and will stand out. Does anyone have any close up pictures of the areas I've circled in red in the picture below on their car so I can see how their install looks? I also showed a closeup, but remember, it's not taped yet, if I push it hard against the bumper it is slightly better.

Also, take a look at the picture of the OEM hartge lip, and you'll notice those areas have a totally smooth transition. Has anyone been able to duplicate this when installing the replica lip? Do you think they had those area's filled with bondo/filler and then repainted the whole bumper to get that smooth transition look?

While I think I may be the only one who cares about it, it was really buggin me, so here is DIY on how I dealt with the gaps on the pillars (note: I jump back and forth between the left and right pillars in the pictures as I picked the photos that were least blurry):

Here is the before pic of the wide gap at the top of the pillar that I didn't like. IMO when you were standing in front of the car, looking down at the front bumper, these gaps gave the lip a bit of a cheap, aftermarket, "slapped on" look:

I went to Pep Boys and bought some bumper repair epoxy from Bondo for about $5.00. Like all epoxy products, it comes with two tubes that you have to mix together, and then it starts to cure and harden. I thought this would be a good product as it was both flexible when it was dry, and could be painted. It is also black, and I have a dark monaco blue car, so I thought that would help. I tested several solvents to see what would work to clean the epoxy off the lip/bumper, and found that Acetone worked well:

To apply the bumper epoxy, I used toothpicks and some popsicle sticks trimmed to a point:

To avoid making a mess all over the bumper/lip I used painters tape.

As you apply the bumper epoxy, be liberal with it. While it is still liquid, it will seep down into the gap, so keep applying it until it no longer seeps down, then you can use the sticks to smooth it out and remove as much excess as possible. You have to work quickly, as it gets pretty stiff in about 5 minutes. As it starts to stiffen, about 2-3 minutes from the time you apply it, you'll want to remove the painters tape. I was afraid if it was left on after the epoxy had totally set up, it would pull the epoxy out once it was removed. Prior to removing the painters tape, lightly soak an area of a cloth towel (not a paper towel or cotton ball as they will leave paper/cotton residue stuck to the curing epoxy) with acetone and smooth out the epoxy removing additional excess epoxy. Remove the tape and continue to clean up the area with the acetone soaked cloth. Be careful not to overdo it with the acetone as it can cloud your clearcoat and require you to go back later and buff the clearcoat.

Here is how it came out:

My original plan was to paint the bumper epoxy with several layers of touch-up paint and a couple layers of clear coat. But at this point, it looks so good, that I think I have a better chance of making it look worse with touch-up than better. Having a very dark car, and the fact that the bumper epoxy is black, makes me think I should just leave it as it is.

If you have either a black or monaco blue car, and have installed the Hartge lip and have the gap issue I had, this is a great way to improve the look. I'm very pleased with how it came out.